


the way the world ends (and how everything starts with you)

by aliaaaaaa



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Established Relationship, Growing Old Together, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-War, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 08:14:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8659396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliaaaaaa/pseuds/aliaaaaaa
Summary: the life of Joseph Liebgott and David Webster, from hello to goodbye.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because [Elena](http://the-kiwi-spleen.tumblr.com/) said that Al Green's Unchained Melody reminded her of Webster and Liebgott and when I listened to it, I got inspired to write how their life would be like if they do end up being together after the war and I know the order is a weird but I hope you will still enjoy it.
> 
> This has been edited by [Natalie](http://im-dyin-sledge.tumblr.com/), who is such a sweetheart and honestly, she's my personal cheerleader.

**2010 | Joe was 95, David was 88**

The sun was shining brightly at the back of his neck the day Joe Liebgott went out to the sea to scatter David Webster’s ashes.

His daughter tried to stop him from following her because it was too dangerous. But one look from him, she shut her mouth. Even at 95, Joe still had the power to intimidate people. It’s a feature that worked on everyone except on his late husband.

Joe squinted his eyes when the blue sea water was sparkling brightly; holding the small urn firmly like he would have held onto David if he was physically here with him. A familiar line of thought began creeping up on him. Even now, even when David was not in this world anymore. Even when Joe didn’t have any more chance to look at David again; he couldn’t help but think that the ocean had nothing on David’s eyes.

Joe stood up when the boat stopped in the middle of the sea. The boat that used to belong to his late husband and now it belonged to him. Everything that was David’s belonged to Joe now and he was rich with more money that he would have ever imagined having. But when Joe hugged the urn closely to his chest, there was a small painful twinge of loneliness. It spread out until his heart felt too numb and he hoped it was the beginning of a heart attack because then he would be reunited with David sooner. But he knew it was from the pain of having to let David go. He tilted his head up; letting the sun warmed him, letting the cool sea breeze caress his face, letting the gentle lull of the boat pull him into the deepest of his memories about David as he scooped the ashes and scattered them across the wide sea.

“Goodbye, David. I’m gonna miss you.”

 

* * *

 

**2008 | Joe was 93, David was 86**

“The State of California has legalized same-sex marriage,” David said conversely one sunny morning.

Joe looked up from the plate he was currently rinsing, a cigarette dangling precariously from between his lips. Through the window, he saw David getting up with a bit of difficulty. His gait was heavier, unsteady like he was in pain. The gout on his knee was probably acting up again; no doubt from eating shellfish when Joe had explicitly forbade him to do.

“Did you hear what I said?” David asked, leaning heavily on the door frame.

Joe turned off the faucet and wiped his hands dry against his shorts; a habit that David abhorred because “I paid good money to buy all those dish towels, Joe.” Still. It was fun to see the annoyed look on David’s face when he did that.

“Couldn’t hear what you said over your heavy steps,” Joe replied, moving to the small living room while David followed behind, slowly. “I told you not to eat those prawns but no you won’t listen to me and now your knees are hurting.”

David sat down on his favorite chair, the one that was closed to the big window because he loved the way the sunlight spilled into the room, brightening up the small space. It was his favorite spot in the whole cottage. It was where he would draft his ideas for his next book or edit his manuscripts before sending them out. Most days Joe would find David napping there; his loud snoring could light up the entire coastal city.

“It’s fine,” David said dismissively, waving Joe’s concerns away. “Listen, this is more important. California has legalized same-sex marriage. Do you know what this means to us?”

“What, Web?”

“It means we can get married! Legally!” David enthused, arms flourishing with grand gesture while he grinned widely.

Joe reached for David’s hand and locked their fingers together. His chest fluttered a bit when David’s blue eyes looked so bright in the morning sunlight. “I’d marry you but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to walk down the aisle with that gout knee of yours.”

“Oh fuck off, Lieb!”

Joe laughed, pulled David’s hand to kiss the the back of it. Their hands were old now; the skins sagged and there were brown spots that came with aging. But Joe wouldn’t want to hold anyone’s hand but David’s and even in this moment when David tried to pull his hand away, Joe tightened his hold, not wanting to let go. “All jokin’ aside, why you wanna get married?” Joe asked, looking at David looking at him. “It’s not that I don’t wanna, but we’ve been together for 60 years. That’s not enough for you?”

David sighed and pulled Joe closer to him, forcing his husband to sit on the hard armrest of his favorite chair. “I know that we’ve been together for a long time, Lieb. I just…” David blinked up at Joe, and squeezed his fingers firmer. “I just wanna make it official y’know?”

Joe knew. It’s what he and David had been talking about since they got back together after the war. But back then, they couldn’t get married like normal people do. Hell, they couldn’t even hold hands and kiss each other in public until the mid 80s. Even then they were stared at, as if they were freaks.

Joe leaned down to drop a kiss on David’s still gorgeous hair. They’ve turned gray now but David still looked handsome as ever. “Not to sound like an asshole but you know I’m in this with you ‘til the very end, Web,” Joe started. “We’ve built our whole life together. We bought this house and signed our name next to each other. We adopted Sarah. We _raised_ her together, Web. Fuck, even during the war we were already together without us knowing it. So excuse me if I say I don’t care about having a piece of paper to validate our marriage because in my mind we _are_ married. Nothing can change that.”

“But I care,” David replied, voice heavy with emotion. “I care because in the eyes of the society we have already been accepted as husband and husband. I care because I want to be able to say “Yeah, we’ve been together for 60 years but we are officially married on July, 2008.” I care because I want to be able to hold your hand without being scared and I want to publish my work under David Kenyon Liebgott because in all honesty I want to be yours like this. It’s a bit backwards but having your surname as mine would make me happy.”

Joe smiled fondly and rested his head on David’s shoulder. “You’re such a sap, Webster.”

“And this is news how?”

Joe snorted and pinched David’s arm lightly, not saying anything anymore because he could feel that he already lost the argument. There was nothing that he wouldn’t do for David and if he wanted to get married then Joe would do it. “Just so we’re clear, I’m not gonna stop calling you Web or Webster just because you are married to me,” Joe said and David rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “I guess we have to tell Sarah that her dads are getting married,” Joe said after a while, and felt David shifted to look at him. “The babies would be ecstatic to attend their grandparents’ wedding I’m sure. Annie and Jo could be the flower girls. Rufus could be the ring bearer. We should ring up Sisk and Pat to come down here too. I’m sure they would bring the whole Easy Co. to crash our wedding.”

David laughed and it sounded warm, like how the sun felt on the back of Joe’s neck when they were out at the beach with their dog. To see David looking at him like he was the world was something that Joe had been chasing after the war had ended and in this moment, even after 60 years of being together; the look still stole Joe’s breath away because he wouldn’t have imagined that someone like him was worthy to be loved so fiercely. But David did and if it meant going over his principle just to make David happy, then so be it.

 

* * *

 

**2002 | Joe was 87, David was 80**

Joe didn’t mean to adopt the dog.

He was out doing his usual weekly shopping and passed his old barber shop only to find it being turned into an animal shelter. Curious, he went in just to look around. To see if the owner had painted over David’s mural of the Santa Monica ocean during sunset. To see if the owner had thrown away the measuring tape he had pasted on the wall when he was measuring Sarah’s heights.

It’s been 15 years since he gave up the lease of the shop. Of course the owner would have gotten rid of everything. But, he was surprised to see the mural was still there, albeit fading with time. The sun needed some coloring to bring it back to life but the color of the ocean was still the same; like David’s eyes when he was happy.

“Can I help you, sir?”

Joe turned around to see a girl smiling at him behind the counter. He smiled back, embarrassed to be being caught staring at the mural. “It’s fine. I was just…” Joe trailed off, gesturing to the mural and the girl grinned at him.

“Yeah, everyone who enters here is fascinated by the mural,” the girl explained and Joe nodded. Of course it was a fascinating drawing, his David did that. “I heard the last owner of this place drew it because he loves the ocean so much. So we decided to keep it.”

Wrong.

It was David’s idea to draw the mural because the wall was “too stark and dull, Joe.” He didn’t help at all except to drive David around town to find the specific blue that his husband had wanted. It was a tedious process watching David draw outlines of the sun and waves so carefully over the wide wall. But he had been with Joe in the shop for two weeks to finish the project so he couldn’t complain. When they stayed at the shop late because Joe had to do accounting, he remembered pressing David to the wall and locking his arms over his head while Joe kissed him hard; rocking their bodies together while Phil Phillips’ Sea of Love was softly playing on the radio. Joe’s book and David painting were forgotten in the heat of the passionate moment and they didn’t care one bit about the paint that covered their shirts and skins as they gasped and moaned and moved together.

Joe didn’t offer any of this information. He just walked around the shelter to look at the dogs.

Then he saw it.

It was small, golden in fur with a spot of white on his head. He was standing on his hind legs, tail wagging excitedly as Joe squatted in front of the cage. “Hello,” Joe greeted and the puppy barked in delight, trying to push its paw out from the small slot as if it wanted to shake Joe’s hand.

“How old is the pup?” Joe asked to the girl and she said Rufus was 3 months old. “We rescued him from the drain,” the girl provided the details while opening the cage to let Rufus out. Rufus came bounding out and jumped into Joe’s waiting arms; barking excitedly and licking his face making Joe laugh with delight.

“He likes you,” the girl beamed and Rufus kept trying to glomp his way up to Joe’s lap. “I don’t know, my housemate might not want a dog,” Joe said forlornly, remembering that David was in the middle of writing another journal paper and if Rufus got ahold of the manuscripts then Joe and Rufus would be dead.

But, Rufus was looking at him, loling his tongue out and wagging his tail; pressing his paw into Joe’s hand and how could anyone say no to this soft face really.

“How much do I have to pay for him?”

The girl beamed, clapping her hands excitedly as she got up to go behind the counter. Joe looked at Rufus and scratched his head, grinning when Rufus tried to nip his arm.

“We have to train you so you won’t go around and chewing on stuff,” Joe whispered to Rufus, grabbing his face gently and swaying his head to the left and right. “Let’s get you home and surprise David.”

 

* * *

 

**1995 | Joe was 80, David was 73**

“Look,” Joe grunted and David knew that it was time for him to intervene. “I’m not gonna ask you again, pal. But I need you to sell me those pink baby mittens because my granddaughters need them.”

“I’m so sorry, sir,” the salesperson apologized, wringing his hands nervously when Joe glared at him. “Those are for display purposes only. If you want, we can place an order for you and the items will arrive–”

“No! I want them now! My granddaughters need them now! You don’t–”

David didn’t wait for Joe to finish his sentence before he dragged Joe by his arm, smiling apologetically at the salesperson who looked like he was about to cry. When they were outside, Joe flapped his arm away and glared at David which made David rolled his eyes at Joe. “Jesus, Joe. Any second then the boy will burst into tears.”

“For fucks sake! They should have them ready in stock! How can a store claim to carry the widest range of baby products, but fail to have the two items we want?” Joe grumbled, walking away from the store with David catching up with him from behind.

“We can visit other stores y’know?” David suggested and Joe rolled his eyes. “‘Sides, we still have two months before the twins arrive. I’m sure you can find something for the babies before that.”

“Have _you_ found something for the twins?” Joe asked, raising his brows in question. “Yeah! Sort of… It’s in progress anyway and it will be done by the time they are born,” David responded, walking side by side with Joe and bumping their shoulders together.

“You’re writing them a book,” Joe stated, narrowing his eyes at David. “That’s cheating! The twins will love your present more than mine!”

David chuckled, and because there was no one around he hooked fingers with Joe and clasped their hands together. “Web, what are you doing?” Joe asked, tried to pull his hand away from David’s hold only for David to pull it back firmer.

“I’m holding your hand, old man,” David answered, swaying their hands back and forth merrily as if he didn’t have a care in the world and why should he care about what others were saying anyway?

“People are watching!” Joe hissed and tried to pull his hand away again but David pressed their palms firmer.

“Then let them watch!” David bellowed back. “They are probably thinking that I am cute for holding your hand and preventing you from falling on your old ass anyway.”

“If my ass is old then your ass is ancient!”

“If I remember correctly, you can’t get enough of this ancient sweet ass,” David leered, wiggling his eyebrows before bursting into a loud laugh at  Joe’s horrified face.

“I can’t believe you said that! In public! With children around!”

David smiled beatifically, still holding Joe’s hand. It felt easier now, liberating as they walked slowly side by side; enjoying the evening sun.

“Are you excited to be a grandpa?” David asked when they were at the crossroad, waiting for the lights to turn green. Joe glanced at David and smiled. “Yeah. The twins would be beautiful like Sarah. Smart like you,” Joe said and when the lights turned green, they crossed the road together; still holding hands and David waved at some college girls when he heard them whisper “Look how cute!” to each other.

“And the twins would be brave and kind like you too, Joe,” David murmured softly to Joe and held Joe’s hand up to his lips and kissed it gently. He was expecting Joe to pull away, to yell at him for being careless with his affections.

But Joe only smiled back and pulled his hand into his warm jacket pocket.

 

* * *

 

**1990 | Joe was 75, David was 68**

Joe was sulking.

He looked like he was brooding but David knew better because he looked sad instead of mad and the line of his shoulders sagged with the weight of the world.

And David knew the reason why as he padded softly into their bedroom and slipped into the bed almost silently, pressing his face against Joe’s back; wrapping his arm over Joe’s waist to pull him closer. “You have to face the fact that our girl is an adult and in two days she will be getting married,” David murmured softly, caressing Joe’s hand gently as if to appease him.

“I’m not sulking,” Joe responded quietly, holding on to David’s hand as if to anchor him from drifting away by the dark thoughts inside of his head.

“It’s okay to feel sad,” David murmured, pressing a kiss on Joe’s shoulder, watching the tension deflected away. “I’m sad too but we have to let her go, Lieb.”

Joe sighed heavily before shifting to turn around and face David; his brown eyes was tinged with such sadness that David pulled him into his embrace. “You remember when we sent Sarah off to her first day of school?” Joe asked, fingers tracing David’s jaw line, feeling the rough stubble catch on his calloused fingers.

“I remember some of the parents staring at us weirdly when Sarah told her homeroom teacher that her two dads were here,” David answered, smiling sadly at the memory, at how some of the adults had shifted further away from them, not wanting to be associated with them.

“ _That_ too but listen— she needed us on her first day of school. I remember she kept glancing back to make sure that we stayed with her. She didn’t even want to sit with her classmates during recess. She wanted us there with her and she was about to cry when her homeroom teacher told all the parents to go home so that the children could concentrate in class. And it made me feel happy to be needed so much like that,” Joe reminisced softly, smiling to himself as he nuzzled David’s shoulder. Then the smile turned sad. “Then on second day, she told us that we should go home. That she had made friends. That she’s a big girl now. She didn’t need us to be there for her anymore.”

David remembered it now because afterwards Joe was holding his hand too tightly while walking out from the building. He looked calm on the outside but David knew Joe was scared that Sarah was growing up too fast. That Sarah would go about in the world, breaking hearts or worse getting her heart broken and Joe wouldn’t be there to mend it for her, to assure her that everything would be okay.

“It feels like that now,” Joe whispered, pressing two fingers on his chest and David could feel the twinge in his chest too. “I know Ben is a good guy and I know he loves her but I still feel scared that I can’t protect her from all the bad in the world, Web.”

David kissed Joe’s lips softly, murmured his name gently as Joe opened his mouth with ease; letting David distract him just for a bit. “We can’t always protect her, Joe,” David chided softly. “She’s been doing a hell of a great job protecting herself since she was a little girl, Joe. She is stubborn like you. She knows what to do when the world is being too mean to her. So give her the credit, Lieb.”

Joe blinked softly and pressed his face closer to David’s chest.

“Besides, she will always need us,” David continued, smoothing his palm on Joe’s back in a soothing manner to calm him down. “She won’t say that she needed our help, but we know. We are her parents, Joe. We feel it when she can no longer carry the weight alone. This time it won’t be any different. She will still be too proud to ask for our help, because she is just like you in that sense but we will always be the annoying parents that will ask her every week if she’s okay. Hell, I know you will be wanting to visit her every month so we can do surprise inspections to see if Ben has been treating her right or not.”

Joe chuckled softly, felt his chest easing tremendously with the idea of going down to visit Sarah. He earned the right to be the annoying dad that worries too much and he would use it every chance he got. “Can I kick Ben’s ass if he’s been a bad husband to our baby girl?”

“Absolutely! I will even join in if he messes with our daughter!”

Joe smiled and pressed a soft kiss on David’s chest, felt the heart beating steadily underneath his cheek. “I love you,” Joe said, loud and clear enough for David to smile teasingly at him before dropping a kiss on his hair and murmuring a soft “I love you too, Lieb.”

“So… who’s gonna walk Sarah down the aisle?” Joe asked after a while. It was a topic both of them had avoided because it ended up with David sulking. He wanted to be the one to walk Sarah down the aisle.

“We’ve already discussed this, Joe. _I’m_ gonna be the one who walks her down the aisle and you can watch from the audience section. Plus, it would be a logical choice for me to do it because if it were up to you, you would steal her away from her own wedding.”

“I would never do that!”

“Please, I know you. You have thought about it twice.”

“I will _not_ steal my daughter away from her wedding, Web!”

“Keep telling yourself that– OW! That hurts you old fool!”

“Keep talking shit like that and I will punch you for real,” Joe growled and David grinned, murmuring an appreciative “feisty” before he pressed Joe into the soft bed to kiss him hard.

The argument had already been forgotten.

 

* * *

 

**1986 | Joe was 71, David was 64**

After slaving away in the academic world for more than 40 years, David Kenyon Webster was awarded the title “Professor” and Joe thought that it was about damn time David received it.

He had seen and lived through all the sleepless night that David had to endure just to write the countless research papers, journals, and theses. Had to watch David being whisked away from his small family in months long fieldwork just to monitor the sharks’ habits and movements.

It was all worth it though in the end when David had gotten the letter from UCLA.

“You should be proud,” Joe said as he folded the letter neatly and placed it back in the envelope. He looked over at David who was sitting in his favorite chair, legs resting comfortably on the brand new ottoman.

“Should I?” David asked back, voice sounding grave and heavy.

Joe moved closer to swat at David’s legs so he could sit on the ottoman. David was giving him a look but Joe ignored that, a sulky David Webster was not his favorite Webster but he had to deal with it on monthly basis so he knew what to do. “Hey, what’s wrong?” Joe asked, tilting his head to the left to watch David watching the sea outside of the tall window. “You didn’t look happy for someone who just received the title “Professor”.

David didn’t answer, and that shit didn’t fly with Joe so he kicked at  David’s shin lightly. “You know I hate being ignored. Either you tell me what’s wrong or I will be so annoying until we punch each other, Web.”

David sighed audibly, and turned to look at Joe. The cloudy look on his face reminded Joe of the war, of the ugly things that David had seen back in Landsberg and Joe had to blink to chase the feeling away. “Do you think I’ve been wasting my time doing my research when in the end I didn’t bring any changes to the world?” David asked, voice small and uncertain; his usual bright blue eyes were now the color of stormy dark sea.

“What are you talking about?” Joe asked back.

“It’s just…” David trailed off, fingers tracing unrecognized patterns on the his trousers, a sure sign that he was dissatisfied with something. “I worked hard to get my degree and I did all my research on preserving sharks but I haven’t brought any changes to the world.”

David was silent and Joe waited. He didn’t push because he knew that David was constructing words inside his pretty head and it was the least that he could do because when he was plagued with his own guilt from the war, David never pushed him to talk; always giving him time to sort his feelings out first.

“The world is such an ugly place now, Lieb. And I haven’t done nothing to make it better. People dying from AIDS and the queer community is being targeted for hate crime. We are being labeled as evil by the church,” David started, his eyes glassy as if he was looking at something unseen in front of him. “We don’t even have fundamental rights as a human beings just because we are queer, Lieb. We would be stripped of our medals if the army found out that you’ve been screwing me on every surface available since before the war was over.”

Shit.

Joe was expecting something heavy to nurse inside David’s head but he wasn’t expecting _this_ kind of heaviness. Joe moved to sit on David’s lap, wrapped his arm around David’s shoulder before kissing his face softly. “Dave,” Joe said, at loss for words on how to comfort his long-time partner. “The world is an ugly place, we have experienced this first hand back in the 40s somewhere over Europe. We’ve seen the horror that men could to to another human being, stripping away their identity until there was nothing left to recognize. But please don’t think your research meant nothing to the world, to me, to Sarah, most importantly to you. Because one day, in the future, all of your papers on sharks and the ocean ecosystem and marine biology would be something precious to the future generation. Your research would be cited tens of thousands of times over because you are the expert on this matter.”

David didn’t say anything, only pulled Joe closer to hide his face on the crook of Joe’s neck. “And I know we queer are not exactly welcomed by the normal people and I know every single day we fear that something bad will happen to Sarah when they find out that her parents are queer, but Web,” Joe tapped David’s chin to make his partner looked up. “We have the capacity to educate these people especially the young children that being queer is not evil, that we are living the respectful life. Hell, Web. You’re a respective figure in our small community and most people around here are afraid of me to actually start a fight. Sarah can take care of herself. If you think that you haven’t done enough for the queer community then use your position as a professor to educate the people. Let them know that being queer is okay.”

David was full out crying right now, tears started to fall down on his pretty face and Joe wiped them away silently, kissing his face gently and tasting salt on his tongue. “Don’t ever put yourself down, David. You’ve done more than enough to educate the young minds and you can do more now with this newly acquired title. You got to believe in yourself that you can bring change to the society, baby.”

David didn’t answer, couldn’t answer without fresh waves of tears threatened to swallow him whole but the heavy feeling in his chest had lifted, replaced by warmth that he had come to associate with Joe.

“Love you,” David whispered wetly, pressing his lips on Joe’s lips and he felt Joe smiled before pulling him into a hug.

“I know,” Joe murmured back. “Now let’s call up the guys to announce the news, then we can set some plan to educate the people, how ‘bout that huh?”

David wiped the unshed tears and smiled at Joe, he was embarrassed for being overly dramatic but Joe was caressing his face gently; pressing a warm kiss on his face.

Ever the supportive partner.

 

* * *

 

**1970 | Joe was 55, David was 48**

Joe was prepping his day to open his barber shop when he got the phone call from the coast guard telling him that “David Kenyon Webster was involved in an accident just outside of the Santa Monica Bay. His boat was wrecked and he’s now at the Santa Monica Hospital. If you could come by to identi–”

Joe didn’t hear the rest of the sentence when he hung up the phone and ran out from his shop; trying and failing to lock the front door because his hands were shaking.

_Jesus fucking Christ, get a fucking grip, Liebgott!_

On the third try, he managed to lock it, running towards his car and totally ignoring Robert’s question on where he was going when he threw himself into his beat-up car before speeding to the hospital. Joe prayed to whatever Gods that would listen that David would be okay, that he only had a minor injury that needed 15 stitches instead of lying naked in the cold morgue.

He didn’t even know how he got to the hospital without wrecking a few cars himself but he was on automatic now; heart pounding fast and he had to double over when he remembered Hageneau. Remembering the anxious feeling when David was over the riverbank and the Germans were firing at them.

“Are you okay?”

Joe whipped his head around and saw a nurse looking at him weirdly, her hands hovering in front of Joe as if to catch him if he fall.

“I…” Joe took a deep breath to steady himself. “I’m looking for my…” Husband was on the tip of Joe’s tongue but he remembered where he was, remembered that he didn’t have the right to call David his husband. “…housemate, David Kenyon Webster. The coast guard called me…”

“Yes! Right this way!” The nurse said, escorting Joe to a series of complicated maze of the hospital ground before he was ushered in into a sterilized room. The smell was too overwhelming that he had to cover his nose to stop himself from vomiting right there.

Then he saw David, lying on the hospital bed; looking like he was sleeping if not for the fact that he was connected to the machine that monitor his vital organs.

“Fuck, Web. What did you do?” Joe murmured, coming closer to the bed to place his hand on David’s face; noting the scars marring his beautiful face and the head wound was a dead giveaway that something bad had happened to his partner.

Just then the door was opened and in came a doctor and two coast guards.

“Are you Joseph Liebgott?” The guard asked and Joe nodded, pulling his hand away from David’s face.

“Yeah, I’m Liebgott. What happened to Webster?”

“He was involved in a boating accident,” The guard explained calmly. “Another boat crashed into his boat because the captain was drunk and he didn’t anchor his boat properly. Mr. Webster was thrown into the water when the boat crashed and he nearly escaped death. He was lucky that our coast guard was patrolling the area.”

Joe was stunned into silence. _Nearly escaped death_ … _He was lucky_ … “What happened to the captain of the other boat?” Joe asked, his voice tight.

“He passed away when he was brought in to this hospital. The head trauma he was experiencing was too grave,” the other guard explained quietly, and Joe thought “good” because if the bastard had been alive, he would have throttled him until he died of Joe’s hands.

“What’s gonna happened to Webster, Doc? Is he gonna be okay?”

The doctor, who was checking David’s vital signs turned to look at Joe. “He’s gonna be fine. His head injury is not bad, just a minor injury that we had to stitch the wound close,” the doctor reassured Joe, clapped him on his shoulder firmly. “We just have to wait for him to wake up to see if he is experiencing any intense headache. If he doesn’t then he’s free to go home.”

The doctor walked out from the room and the coast guard fussed over some documentations that needed Joe’s immediate attention; Joe signed everything without stopping to read the words on the documents and it was a very careless thing to do but he was worried about David and he wanted the coast guard gone so he could spend some time with his partner; wallowing in his anxiety until David woke up.

When they were gone, Joe dragged the chair nearer to the bed and waited for David to wake up.

One hour turned into two then it turned into three. Then he remembered Sarah and maybe he should have gone to pick her up from school but he didn’t wanna leave David alone just in case he woke up. But he didn’t want Sarah to wonder where he had gone to.

Decision made, he told the nurse to tell David that he’s gonna come back after this, that he won’t be long. And Joe was probably piling up on the tickets today for violating several laws but he needed to arrive at the school fast so he could go back to the hospital fast, not wanting to leave David alone one second too long.

When he went back with Sarah in tow, David was still asleep; the nurse had told Joe this as she waved at Sarah and offered her some candies.

“What happened to daddy?” Sarah asked when she got a good look at David, her small hand looked so small in David’s giant palm.

“He got into an accident,” Joe explained, pulled Sarah closer to him to hug her firmly. “A bad guy made daddy hurt so now he is resting to get better.”

“Why do bad guy want to hurt daddy?” Sarah frowned and Joe kissed her long hair.

“Because he’s a stupid man,” Joe answered simply and something in him burned with blazing anger when he looked at David lying on the bed. He took a deep breath, told himself to calm down. “Are you hungry? Wanna go eat something at the cafeteria?”

Sarah shook her head. “I wanna stay with daddy.”

Joe sighed and kissed her head again, “Alright, we’ll stay with daddy.”

They waited until Sarah fell asleep on the small couch, looking small and rumpled and the vision made something in Joe’s chest twist painfully and he started to pray; asking for God to wake David up now because he couldn’t afford to lose David. Couldn’t afford to let Sarah grow up without her dad. He closed his eyes because the riverbank back in Hagenau was filling his mind; the image of David trodding down the enemy line was so vivid in his mind’s eyes that he was having a difficult time breathing because David had exchanged place with him and he was treating David like dirt; like David was beneath him for missing Bastogne.

And he felt like shit afterwards when he could hear David yelling loudly from across the river; pulling Popeye away to safety while he stayed to cover Popeye.

It felt like that now, it felt like his heart was about to burst open from his chest with every ticking of the clock, with every passing minutes and David was so stubbornly still unconscious.

He prayed until he had no words left to say, until all he could do was wait and in the tenth hour since he got the call, David woke up. Groggy, and not sure where he was and why his head felt so heavy.

“You’re in the hospital, dumbass,” Joe grunted, willing himself not cry when David blinked open his eyes and all Joe could see was blue.

“Wha’ happened?” David murmured, his speech slurring from the heavy drug and he tried to roll over but Joe was quick, catching him before he fell down. “Easy, easy, Web. Don’t move. Hey, look at me. You remember me?” Joe asked.

David looked at Joe blankly and for a moment Joe felt like his back was poured with ice cold water when David was quiet for a long time without giving him any answer. “What kind of question is that? O’ course I remember you, you’re my husband,” David answered, licking his dry lips and Joe fussed over him; pouring a cup of water and making sure David didn’t choke.

“Do you remember that we have a daughter together?” Joe asked again, and David looked at him with annoyance now and that was familiar and he breathed a sigh of relief when David murmured “Sarah”.

“I had to check because you somehow have gotten your ass in a boat accident and you injured your head, dumbass,” Joe complained to David, poking at his ribs sharply because he was angry. “And you were out for 11 hours and I was so worried... Fuck.”

David didn’t say anything; he just took Joe’s hand in his and squeezed tightly. “I’m sorry.”

Joe shook his head, leaned down to kiss David on his left brow. “Don’t ever do that again,” Joe whispered fiercely against David’s temple. “I’m not gonna allow you back into the boat. Ever. You hear me? No boat.”

“But what about my research?”

“No boat!”

David sighed but he didn’t say anything, and that was enough for Joe. He knew that David would eventually end up being in a fucking boat again and now with the added anxiety from Joe’s part but for now, Joe would take whatever he could from David; even a false lie about him not gonna be in a goddamn boat again.

 

* * *

 

**1962 | Joe was 47, David was 40**

They had never discussed about having a child together.

Joe thought that David wasn’t interested in raising a kid when he had his own research to occupy his time, while David, ever the sensible David thought that bringing up a child into their life would make everything complicated especially when it came to deal with  society’s perspective.

Still, when one of David’s students had come to see him and offered her unborn baby for David to adopt; his reaction was priceless. He simply was flabbergasted by the girl’s request.

“I couldn’t afford to take care of a baby and I couldn’t pay for an abortion too…” the girl explained, head bowed down so low that David had a hard time to listen to her. “I just… please help me. I don’t know any other way.”

David opened his mouth and closed it again, at lost for word and he sagged back against his chair. “Why me? I’m not even married.”

“But you are!” The girl looked up, tears smudging her mascara. “I know you think that people don’t notice, but I know you and your housemate are in a way married to each other.”

David was once again stunned into silence, panic settling in nicely in his system but he remained calm because now wasn’t the time. “Are you going to report on me?”

“What? No!” the girl denied.  “I just want you to adopt the baby and raise her as your own because I know you would do a better job than anyone else.”

“You don’t know that,” David protested quietly.

“I do!” the girl protested back loudly, her mouth twisted in anguish. “You’ve been nurturing us students in your own quirky ways and you care about us more so than the other teachers and I honestly couldn’t think of anyone else to raise the baby but you.”

David couldn’t given his answer now, and he was not sure if he could give an answer ever but he had broken the news to Joe when they were washing the dishes side by side. “A baby?” Joe asked incredulously; a cigarette dangling from his pretty lips and any other time David would take the pleasure of taking a drag from the same cigarette before pressing Joe against the sink to kiss him hard but tonight he was distracted with this thought.

“Yeah,” David started. “Us raising a baby together.”

“What brought this on?”

David could lie, he could lie to Joe by saying that he had always wanted a child with Joe, how Joe would be a great father one day. But he also knew that Joe could detect his bullshit from miles away. So he told Joe the truth about the girl, and the baby. About how she knew about them being together.

“She’s not gonna demand us to pay her, isn’t she?” Joe asked, glancing to look at David.

“I don’t think so, Joe,” David replied quietly.

“Okay, hypothetically we adopt this baby, then what? Is she gonna come running back to pick her kid up when she’s all grown? Or is she willing to fully give up the baby to us with no string attached?”

“I think we are looking at the no string attached angle here…”

Joe was silenced after that, he methodically wiped the dishes clean and David knew not to interrupt him when Joe was like this. So he left Joe alone to shower, to let the day’s drama wash away from his system. When he stepped out from the shower, Joe was already in bed, seemingly waiting for him to discuss more about the matter but David needed Joe now in more visceral way.

He pulled his towel off of his body and got into the bed to pin Joe easily with his body. Joe on his part was used to this, used to David being demanding so he let him had the control. “Are you gonna sex me up until I agree to adopt the baby?” Joe asked, legs opening easily for David to slot in between them.

David peppered Joe’s neck with kisses, showered his face and lips with gentle nips until Joe was whimpering; pulling David by his neck to kiss him softly. “I don’t have to sex you up to make you agree with me,” David moaned when Joe was sucking on his collar bone. “Know that you’ve already pictured yourself with a daughter. Know that you’ve imagined what our life would be like if we have her.”

Joe let out a soft moan when David cup his erection through his underwear, planting his feet on the bed to have more friction before he surrendered his body for David to do as he pleased. “Was imagining about you being a dad actually,” Joe panted when David started to stroke his hard cock firmly, thumbing the slit. “Was imagining that you would be… _fuck_ …that you would be a great dad. That I’m gonna finally be able to raise a child with you.”

David stopped his ministration to focus on Joe’s face and the sudden lack of movement made Joe whimpered. “You thought about us being parents?”

“Really? You literally have my dick in your hand, Web and you stop to ask me this?” Joe grumbled and tried to move but David pressed hips down.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you’ve been wanting to raise a child with me?” David asked gently, his eyes searching Joe’s face for the answer.

“Because I thought you didn’t want a kid with me,” Joe answered, annoyed that his pleasure was being denied. Exasperated that David was forcing him to laid open his wishful thinking. “You know I’ve always wanted children but what you want is more important than what I want so when you didn’t say anything about wanting a kid, I don’t think of bringing it up.”

David surged down to kiss Joe hard on the lips, pouring out his feeling until Joe was a mess of moan and whimper then he twisted his wrist and Joe was sobbing from the pleasure pain.

“I want what you want too, Joe,” David hissed, hand blurring on Joe’s cock. “We are in this together and this is not a one way relationship. You’re _important_ to me and whatever that you want, I want it too.”

Joe could only move his hips upwards to meet with David’s slick stroke; moaning shamelessly as he used David’s body to chase for his own pleasure.

“And if you want a baby with me then we’ll have a baby and we’ll name her Sarah because she’ll be our princess and we’ll raise her together and you’re gonna be the most wonderful dad ever and we’re gonna have a family of our own,” David whispered softly and that triggered something in Joe, the idea of having a family with David and when he came, it was with loud and noisy, with David’s name falling out from his lips and the word _“yes, yes, yes”_ was repeated like a salvation.

 

* * *

 

**1958 | Joe was 43, David was 36**

The cottage was a two bedroom house with the ocean as their backyard.

The white sand unbroken itself every morning no matter how much Joe had trudged on them, pressing his feet deeper, digging his soles harder; trying to leave marks only for the wind to erase everything.

The wide space and the clean air felt like a dream after being cooped in for too long inside their tiny apartment back in New York. Here in Santa Monica with the wide sea opening her arms to greet them, Joe felt free and he knew David felt the same way too because his eyes were too blue when he looked at the ocean.

“Think we should paint the house yellow,” David said, shielding his eyes from the sun when he looked at the house, trying to find anything that he could fix before his semester at UCLA started.

“What’s wrong with gray?” Joe asked, throwing the seashell back into the ocean.

“It’s dull,” David answered. “We should paint it yellow so when the boys come into town, they would recognize our house from the distance.”

Joe grinned when he looked at David, at the man that he had fallen in love with, at the man that he had vowed to spend the rest of his life with. “Sisk might still get lost even if the house is painted with red with signage pointing at it.”

David chuckled and bumped his shoulder with Joe, checking to see if they were truly alone before he leaned in to kiss Joe’s lips quickly, fast enough that Joe didn’t have time to protest. In all honesty, they wouldn’t even have to hide from anyone because the houses were set too far apart but he knew Joe was still skirmished when it came to public displays of affection but David was happy that they had all this wide space to themselves that he wanted nothing more but to pull Joe into a tight hug just because he could.

So he did, even when Joe was cursing and telling him to stop, he still pulled Joe into a tight embrace because here was a man that made David happy, that made David felt free, that made David felt like anything was impossible as long as they were in it together.

“One of these days, someone will see us and that person will come and cause us trouble just because you couldn’t keep your hands to yourself when we are out in public,” Joe grumbled but he let himself be swayed around by David’s rhythm as they moved to the imaginary sound of music.

“If they come here to cause us trouble then we will be ready,” David chuckled as he pressed kisses on Joe’s face. “You can take him down alone, I’m sure of this.”

Joe rolled his eyes, but he was smiling widely; felt his chest unfurled and tugged loose when David pulled him closer.

There was nothing to this anymore.

This was his life now, with David and he could finally say that he was happy. That the memories from the war were always going to  be there; carved deeply in his bones and his mind but he had David by his side. The one thing that could unburden his worries and guilts, as the wind did to the sand, was David looking at him like he mattered. That despite the ugly things he had done in the war, David had looked past all that and had looked at him with love and adoration that were too fiercely embedded in his bright blue eyes.

That in itself was the healing he had been looking for, and he had found it here, in Santa Monica with David besides him.

 

* * *

 

**1953 | Joe was 38, David was 31**

Joe was nervous.

And he had a good reason to be. It was all because of the ring that was currently residing deep inside his jacket pocket. He had been carrying the ring for almost a week now, waiting for the right time to ask David _the_ question.

Joe pulled out the ring and held it carefully between his fingers; holding it high enough that the sun was reflected on the surface; a myriad of rainbow color bounced on the bare wall. It was just a plain ring, but he had worked his ass off by taking in the extra shift driving his cab around New York City. Leaving their small apartment before David even woke up and coming back home with David waiting for him with their dinner of Chinese take-outs and cold beers.

He knew that David deserved to be draped with the finest gold and diamond ever made but he hoped that the thin gold ring was enough for him to say yes.

He had been thinking about this matter a lot, even before the war was over; even before Landsberg and Berchtesgaden and Zell am See. He had been mulling about the possibilities of him and David ended up being together like this. The plan of finding a nice Jewish girl and having lots of little Liebgotts had scattered in the wind; being left somewhere in Landsberg. And now he was here with David, he was here with this gentile of a man and he would never have his little Liebgotts and it was okay by him because he was at the place in his life where he was slowly accepting himself again, where he didn’t hate what he saw in the mirror every morning, where David was there to soothe his nightmares, to hold him tight, to chase his demons away.

They were here at this juncture of their life where they were slowly finding their footing in the world, slowly building their life back _together_. Nothing else mattered, not his Ma’s disappointed face when he told her that he wouldn’t be staying in Frisco, not his siblings’ anger for leaving again. Because they didn’t understand the magnitude of the guilt he had been carrying around, they didn’t understand that some days he didn’t even want to wake up; wishing that he was dead instead; swallowed by the static noise of the world.

But then he found David again and something in him started to heal up; the worst of his wound was slowly closing up because David had looked at him like he had looked at the ocean; full of adoration and wonderment. Something fascinating that he won’t ever bored by it.

Joe had been chasing that since the war was over and now here he was at this point in his life where he wanted David to be part of it for forever.

And that scared him the most because forever was such a long time concept and he didn’t know what would happen to them in the future but he wanted it.

Wanted the future with David.

The door opening and closing shook Joe out from his musing and he pocketed back the ring before David saw it. His heart was already hammering loudly and he was sure David could hear it when he leaned down to kiss Joe on the face; the cold air from the outside was thick on David’s face.

“You’re home early,” David said, sounding tired and it must had been a rough day at the college.

“Got off work early to cook dinner for you,” Joe answered, already busied himself with taking out the two plates from the small cabinet.

David leaned over Joe’s behind to check the food and smirked, “Army noodles and ketchup?”

Joe swatted David’s hand away when he was picking out the mushroom from the sauce. “Perco will kick your ass if he hears you say that.”

David laughed and the sound soothed Joe’s nerves a bit. “It looks lovely, thank you,” David said, taking the plate from Joe and diggin in with such gusto that would make even his Ma proud.

They ate in silence; only the scraping sound of forks against plates and of David’s satisfied noises were heard. Joe pushed his food around the plate, waiting for the right moment to blurt his question out only for David to beat him to it. “So…” David started, looking nervous all of the sudden and Joe’s nerves were on edge again. “I have something to tell you. UCLA called me this morning and they offered me a two-year tenure at the marine biology department. They asked me to teach few classes and to do some fieldwork and maybe even publish some academic papers too before I get a full tenure in the office.”

Joe swallowed with great difficulty because David was leaving him. David was going to the west coast and leaving him alone. Oh god.

“– and they would provide me with an apartment and Joe…” David took Joe’s hand in his and Joe did everything that he could to control his emotion because this was the part where David would tell Joe that they had to go their separate ways. That David was done playing house with him and now he’s gonna move forward and settled with someone better and raised a family with her. “– I want you to go with me.”

_What?_

“What?”

David smiled at him, looking all fuck nervous as he squeezed Joe’s fingers. “I know it’s a selfish request for me to be asking you this but Joe, come with me to Santa Monica,” David murmured, his blue eyes locked in with Joe’s brown eyes. “I want you there with me because I can’t do this, any of this, without you.”

Joe swallowed again and blinked his eyes, felt his heart about to jump out from his chest to his palm. “Are you…,” he croaked. “…proposing to me, Webster?”

David smiled wide and dragged Joe’s hand to kiss his wrist softly. “In a way, yes. But I don’t have the ring.”

“I do,” Joe cut him off immediately and pulled out the ring from his pocket, felt the cold metal warming up his sticky palm, felt his lips stretching out into a small smirk when he looked at David’s expression. “Fuck, Web. I was gonna propose to you after dinner but you beat me to it by asking me to move halfway across the country with you.”

“You bought me a ring,” David breathed out. “Jesus, an actual gold ring.”

Joe laughed and and stood up and moved around to stand in front of David. “Fuck, should I kneel? Would you think me as a sap if I kneel?”

“Standing up is okay too, Joe. Jesus, just ask me already,” David grumbled but Joe could hear the waver in his voice.

“Okay, shit. Fuck. Sorry, I wasn’t supposed to curse. Alright. Okay, David Webster. Dave. Web,” Joe said, opening his palm to show David the ring. “I know we can’t get married like everyone else does, but will you be with me for the rest of your life? I’ll promise to take care of you. I’ll promise to do right by you. Even when we argue, I’ll promise to make things right. So, will you do the honor to be my life partner forever?”

David was staring openly at Joe, his mouth fell open in a fraction and there were unshed tears in his blue eyes. “Yes. Yes! I will! Fuck! I will, you know I will.”

Joe laughed and slid the ring into David’s finger; felt his chest caught and released when he saw how the ring fit perfectly and David let out a small sob when he pulled Joe down to kiss him hard; to wrap his arms around Joe.

“I’m so happy,” Joe whispered into David’s neck and David tightened his hold on Joe; pulled him more until Joe was straddling his thighs. “I don’t think I’d ever be this happy again, Web.”

“I love you,” David said, kissing the side of Joe’s face before slotting their mouths together with perfect ease. “You haven’t told me if you agree to come with me to California.”

Joe breathed out the heavy feeling and smiled at David, cupped his face gently to kiss his pretty pouty mouth. “You know I’ll go wherever you go, Web,” Joe murmured, pressing their temples together. “You know we are in this together.”

“Together,” David repeated softly, kissing Joe again and again; basking in the soft moment.

 

* * *

 

**1948 | Joe was 33, David was 27**

The war had been over for 3 years now.

The world was slowly picking itself up; healing and letting go of the past wound in order to move forward. But David was still struggling to find his footing in the “liberated” world. He tried to move on with his life; tried to be the old David Webster before the war had happened. Tried to be the wide-eyed, naive boy that thought he knew about loneliness and longing and how to hide them, how to mask his sadness and kindness. He believed in the superiority of feeling since he felt everything so strongly. But the war had happened and that wide eyed, naive boy died somewhere in between Carentan and Holland. What came back to the States was a man with unseen scars; a hollowed shell.

Empty.

He went back to Harvard feeling listless and useless, feeling annoyed with his classmates when they talked about the war as if they had seen the horror. As if they had done the ugliest things men could do to another human being. He couldn’t shake the war from his mind no matter how hard he tried. It seeped out from between his fingers when he turned the pages of the book he was reading, it seeped out from his mind through the tip of his pen when he was writing. Everything was too suffocating and he was restless because he couldn’t shake the war from his system.

And what annoyed him the most was he couldn’t seem to shake Joe from his mind too.

It had been three years since they last saw each other and yet David kept thinking about him. Even when he was going about with his life, pretending that he was a functional being in the society; his mind kept wandering to Joe. Wondering if Joe was okay, wondering if he was in Frisco now; making a fortune charging  the soldiers that came back from the war. He wondered if Joe felt what he was feeling; the hopelessness that was trying to swallow him whole when he realized no one in the goddamn big city understood the trauma he was forced to live every day.

And in the middle of the night like right now, with the wind howling outside of the window,  when he thought that he wasn’t capable of feeling lonely anymore, he wondered if Joe had found a nice girl to settle down with. If they were happily living, creating lives together; all the little Liebgotts running around with Joe’s soft hair and pretty smile.

He always wondered if Joe ever thought about him like he always thought about Joe.

His musing was interrupted when there was a sharp knock on his door. He stopped to listen and he was about to dismiss it before hearing it again; louder, sharper now, like the person behind the door was demanding something from him.

He got up lazily, his thick blanket trailing behind as he dragged it with him to the front door. For some odd reason his heart started to beat faster; as if it knew something that he had no knowledge about. And when he opened the door to reveal the person behind it, he knew why his heart started to sing. It was the same feeling when he had first met Joe; when he had first laid eyes on Joseph Liebgott and he somehow knew that their lives would be intertwined together.

Seeing Joe standing in front of him now; looking haggard and exhausted and _so beautiful_ ; the feeling returned so immediately that he almost doubled over; but Joe was quick to catch him and gripped his arm tightly until he felt the familiar warmth seep into his skin.

“Shit,” David swore quietly, not quite believing his eyes but the fingers digging into his flesh were hard, _familiar_.

And Joe smirked at him–the beautiful bastard smirked at him–and pulled him into a hug, murmuring a soft, “Hello, Webster. Did you miss me?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you have arrived at this point, then congrats! Thank you for reading! Kudos and comment are very much appreciated!


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